UPDATE: CyberAttack? MSC Reports Massive Network Outage

UPDATE (APRIL 11 @ 12:00 GMT) : MSC issued an advisory last night saying that “After several hours of investigations, the issue is now confirmed to be confined to Geneva only. The servers in the Headquarters have been shut down and our team of experts are working hard to ensure we can return to normal operating conditions the soonest.”

The outage has shut down all servers at the shipping line’s HQ in Geneva. The company reports though that all its “departments, terminals, depots etc. operate without disruptions.”

There is still no final confirmation whether the system outage is confirmed to be a cyberattack as is suspected.

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – This morning MSC customers woke up to an email from the shipping line saying that it was experiencing “a network outage on one of our data centers” and that “online bookings and track and trace services are currently unavailable”

The company announced one hour ago that it can not rule out a cyberattack as the cause for the system failure.

“In light of the network outage incurred on one of the data centers in Geneva, we decided to close down the servers in our Headquarters as a first safety measure – since security is our top priority,” MSC said on Twitter.

If the cause of the network outage at MSC is found to be due to a malicious attack it will not come as a surprise to many.

INTERPOL Warning

Last week INTERPOL issued a warning to organizations at the forefront of the global response to the COVID-19 outbreak that they have also become targets of ransomware attacks, which are designed to lock them out of their critical systems in an attempt to extort payments.

To support global efforts against this critical danger, INTERPOL informed that they had issued a Purple Notice alerting police in all its 194 member countries to the heightened ransomware threat.

We (and others) warned at that time that “While INTERPOL’s alert does not mention ports, shipping and other critical maritime infrastructure, we believe that it too is or will soon be attacked in a similar manner by cybercriminals during this critical time of supply chain vulnerability.“